260 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



fast found the waters of Jordan, " to the palate bitter, and 

 to the stomach cold," and require special treatment in 

 order to eliminate a poisonous principle. Many chemists 

 analysed the beans (one finding that they may be converted 

 into excellent starch) without discovering any noxious 

 element ; but as horses, cattle, and pigs die if they eat the 

 raw bean, and a mere fragment is sufficient to give human 

 beings great pain, followed by most unpleasant conse- 

 quences, the research was continued, until within quite 

 a recent date the presence of saponin was detected. 

 Before science made its discovery, the blacks were very 

 positive on the point of the poisonous qualities of the bean, 

 and took measures to eliminate it. In some parts of the 

 State the beans, after being steeped in water for several 

 days, are dried in the sun, roasted in hot ashes, and pounded 

 between stones into a coarse kind of meal, which may be 

 kept for an indefinite period. When required for use the 

 meal is mixed with water, made into a thin cake or damper, 

 and baked in the ashes. Prepared in this way the cake 

 resembles a coarse ship's biscuit. In other parts, the beans 

 are scraped by means of mussel-shells into a vermicelli-like 

 substance, prior to soaking in water. Our blacks have a 

 more ingenious method of preparation, and employ a 

 specially formed culinary implement, which is used for no 

 other purpose. They take the commonest of the land 

 shells " kurra-dju " (Xanthomelon pachystyla] and break- 

 ing away the apex grind down the back on a stone until 

 but little more than half its bulk remains. The upper 

 edges being carefully worked to a fine edge, the only 

 housewifery implement that the blacks possess is perfect. 

 With the implement in the right hand, between the thumb 

 and the second finger the sharp edge resting on the 

 thumb-nail the beans are planed, the operator being able 

 to regulate the thickness of the shaving to a nicety. 



It is women's work to collect the beans, make the shell- 

 planes, and do the shredding. In the first place the beans 

 are cooked, the oven consisting of hot stones covered with 

 leaves. In three or four hours they are taken out and 



